Two British soldiers and four US troops ‘killed by militants in Afghan police uniforms’

Six Nato troops including two British service personnel have died in the space of just 24 hours in Afghanistan in two separate attacks by suspected Taliban militants wearing local police uniforms.

51 Nato troops have been killed in so-called green on blue attacks in 2012 (Picture: AFP/Getty)

Two British soldiers from Third Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment died in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province yesterday when a man wearing the uniform of a government-backed militia opened fire.

The two soldiers, whose next of kin have been informed by the Ministry of Defence, were reportedly shot when they responded to their assailant’s cries of help after he claimed to have been injured and in need of aid.

In a separate incident, four US soldiers died when at least one man wearing the uniform of an Afghan police officer opened fire at a remote checkpoint in Zabul province’s Mizan district.

The latest incidents of so-called green on blue attacks are seriously threatening the partnership between Nato and Kabul as the alliance plans to complete a handover of security responsibilities by the end of 2014.

Lance Corporal Duane Groom died when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb on Friday (Picture: PA)

In 2012 so far 51 international service members have died at the hands of Afghan soldiers or policemen, or insurgents wearing their uniforms, while 12 attacks in August alone left 15 dead.

More details meanwhile have emerged of an attack by suspected Taliban militants upon Camp Bastion, Britain’s largest military base in Afghanistan, in Helmand province.

Fifteen insurgents wearing US uniforms killed two American marines, destroyed six Harrier jets and three refuelling stations as well as damaging several aircraft hangers, Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) revealed.

The MoD has also named the British soldier killed in Afghanistan on Friday by a roadside bomb as Lance Corporal Duane Groom from the Queen’s Company, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards.L/Cpl Groom, 32, originally from Fiji, was eulogised as ‘tough, keen and unflappable’ by his commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel James Bowder.’Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends outside the regiment at this most difficult of times,’ Lt Col Bowder added.